Captain John Shaw - Irish Biography

Shaw, John, Captain, United States Navy, was born at Mountmellick in 1773. He received but an ordinary education, accompanied an elder brother to America in 1790, adopted a sea-faring life, and became a lieutenant in the United States Navy in 1798, on the breaking out of hostilities with France. In the course of 1800, in command of the schooner Enterprise he took no fewer than eight privateers and letters-of-marque, and fought five spirited actions, two with vessels of superior force. He cruised in the Mediterranean in the George Washington in 1801; was appointed a captain in 1807; served in the war of 1812 against the United Kingdom; and in 1816 and 1817 commanded a squadron in the Mediterranean. Subsequently he had charge of the navy yards of Boston and Charleston. He died in Philadelphia, 17th September 1823, aged about 50.

Featured Books

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger (also onKindle) is an American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine. Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country. Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today. The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowingAnnals of the Famine in Ireland (Kindle version here).

Annals of the Famine in Ireland is Asenath Nicholson's sequel to Ireland's Welcome to the Stranger. The undaunted American widow returned to Ireland in the midst of the Great Famine and helped organise relief for the destitute and hungry. Her account is not a history of the famine, but personal eyewitness testimony to the suffering it caused. For that reason, it conveys the reality of the calamity in a much more telling way. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.